Business: TRADE: DANGEROUS DRIFT FOR THE U.S.

TURNING away from the fitful franc for a moment, the International
Monetary Fund last week reported some sanguine statistics about world
trade. For the first time, nations are selling goods and services to
each other at a rate of more than $200 billion a year. The flow reached
$209 billion in this year's third quarter, an increase of 8% in the
past twelve months. Altogether, the industrial nations increased their
exports by 116% in the past decade.

Still, not all did well. Britain's exports rose only 45% during the same
period. And while the...